Japan puts missile systems on alert

North Korea said it had completed its first military satellite and leader Kim Jong Un had approved final preparations for the launch. He had inspected a military satellite facility in May, state news agency KCNA said.

Japan Self-Defense Forces soldiers and a Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile system in Tokyo, Japan. Photo: Reuters

This would be the latest move by North Korea after a series of missile launches and weapons tests in recent months, including a new solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile.

Japan expects North Korea to fire a satellite-carrying missile over its southwestern island chain as it did in 2016, a Japanese Defense Ministry spokesman said.

Analysts say the new satellite is part of a surveillance technology program that includes drones, aimed at improving the ability to strike targets in wartime.

"We will take measures to destroy ballistic missiles and other missiles confirmed to have fallen on our territory," Japan's Defense Ministry said in a statement.

Japan will use Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) or Patriot PAC-3 missiles to destroy North Korean missiles.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters that any missile launch by North Korea would be a serious violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

“We strongly urge North Korea to refrain from launching missiles,” his office wrote on Twitter, adding that it would cooperate with its allies the United States, South Korea and other countries.

South Korea has joined Japan in urging North Korea to cancel its satellite launch plans. "If North Korea continues, it will have to pay the price and suffer losses," a South Korean foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement calling on North Korea to withdraw its missile launch plans.

Kim Gunn, South Korea's special representative for peninsula peace and security affairs, held a three-way phone call with his counterparts from Japan and the United States, the ministry added.

In April 2018, Japan sent a destroyer carrying SM-3 interceptor missiles capable of attacking targets in space to the East China Sea and sent ground-based PAC-3 missiles to the Okinawa Islands, designed to attack targets closer to the ground.

"The government recognized that there was a possibility that the satellite could pass over our country's territory," Hirokazu Matsuno, chief cabinet secretary, told a regular news conference after North Korea informed the Japanese coast guard of the plan.

Hoang Anh (according to Reuters)

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